


Codename_Smiling_God

by JetpacksAndRollerblades



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: An Intern Is Murdered, Drug Use, Episode 73 - Triptych, Gen, Strexcorp, Strexcorp is Evil, Torture, Tradegy, Violence, reeducation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 19:27:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16047017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetpacksAndRollerblades/pseuds/JetpacksAndRollerblades
Summary: A look into Kevin's transformation from friendly and helpful local radio journalist to the horrifying shell of a man he becomes, and the fun and friendly corporation that helps him along his journey.





	Codename_Smiling_God

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this basically right after episode 73 came out in 2015, but I originally intended for it to be just the beginning of a longer fic, which I never ended up writing. So here it is now, very slightly edited. 
> 
> It's not the most graphic thing ever but it's pretty gross at times, so consider yourself warned.

It was a very interesting day for Kevin at Desert Bluffs Community Radio Station. Partway through his usual broadcast, an unexpected visitor showed up on air. He called himself Cecil with a hard 'e', and said he was a radio host, just like Kevin, but he was from somewhere Kevin had never heard of before... Night Vale?... and he said he was from the future. They spent a lot of time talking about things, and found they had a lot in common, including their mutual hatred of that No-Good corporation, Strexcorp. Kevin thought they were getting along quite well.

He was halfway through his spiel about how great his wonderful town of Desert Bluffs was and how important it was to win so that it could stay that way forever when it occurred to him. “Hey, you’re from the future! That means you know how this turns out!” he exclaimed.

Cecil seemed surprised and maybe a little caught off guard by the question. “Well, uh, y– y– yes, I do,” he stuttered in reply.

“So?” Kevin asked eagerly, “Do we win? Does everything go just as right as right could be?”

There was silence on Cecil's end for a little while, and Kevin started to worry that maybe they had been disconnected somehow, but then he realized that Cecil was probably just worried about messing up the space-time continuum by telling someone in the past something that happens in the future. Finally, Cecil spoke.

“Yes,” he said, and Kevin pumped his fist in the air. But that wasn't all. Cecil continued on with, “You win, Kevin. Everything goes right. You and community radio prevail. And you are happier than ever. Desert Bluffs is a wonderful town, and you live happily in it.” Cecil sounded sad for some reason, but Kevin couldn't imagine why. That was great news! That was the _best_ news!

“Oh! That’s such good news!” Kevin exclaimed excitedly into the microphone. “Thanks for telling me. I can’t wait for the future to come! Though, I have no choice but to wait, I suppose. That’s how the future works, scientists keep insisting. Scientists are the worst, right?” Kevin smiled again, this time more softly, and added, “Well, I’m sure I’ll talk to you again at some point in my life. Until next time, Cecil, until next time.”

Kevin waited patiently for Cecil's response, but this time, the other man wasn't just hesitating. There connection seemed to have gone away. Vaguely, Kevin wondered how much Cecil had heard before they'd been disconnected, but he brushed the thought away in favor of his renewed thoughts of hope and plans for how his wonderful town of Desert Bluffs would defeat that rotten corporation once and for all.

 

₪₪₪

 

“No! _No!_ You can't do this! You _can’t!_ ” Kevin screamed, his already heightened heart-rate and panicked breath elevating to a dangerous level as he pressed himself hard against the soundboard and microphone on his desk.

“No, Kevin, I'm afraid that's where you're wrong,” the smiling woman said, taking another step towards him. “We most certainly can. Now come here.” The woman moved closer, and reached out to him, as if she was expecting him to take her hand. Her smile grew impossibly wider as he looked from her face to her hand and back again.

“Get away from him, you bitch!” The smiling woman turned just in time for Intern Nina to slam a mic stand into her face, hard. Kevin expected her to fall to the ground, or at least stagger a bit, but to his horror, she simply laughed, wiping the blood from her face with her hand, and turned to set her smile on Intern Nina.

“Oh, honey,” she said, looking at Intern Nina in some sort of warped facsimile of pity, “You don't seem to understand. You see, we at Strexcorp _need_ Kevin here. He will be instrumental in our success as a corporate entity. You, however, are very easily replaceable. In fact, you've already been made redundant.”

“Shut _up_!” Intern Nina yelled, and started to swing the stand again, but before she could make contact, the woman surged forward, and with a knife that seemed to be pulled from thin air, sliced Intern Nina's throat. Intern Nina dropped the mic stand and held her hands to her neck, looking at the woman, and then at Kevin, in shock. The stand fell to the floor with a loud crash, and Intern Nina followed soon after, landing with a dull thump.

Kevin stood still, paralyzed, as the woman turned to face him again, wishing with all of his heart that he could run forward and take Intern Nina into his arms, but unable to move or even speak out of shock and fear. The woman cleaned off her knife and put it away, straightening her well-tailored suit, fixing her hair, and adjusting her small golden name tag. Kevin hadn't noticed it before. 'Lauren Mallard,' it read.

“Now, back to business, shall we?” Lauren smiled. Kevin said nothing. “Oh, come on, Kevin, say something! That lovely voice of yours is the reason you're still alive, after all!”

Finally, Kevin found it within himself to speak again. “We... We will fight back! You're not going to win this! Desert Bluffs is a strong community, _Lauren_ , you're underestimating us!” he said, spitting out her name as spitefully as he could muster. Lauren just threw back her head and laughed.

“Oh, Kevin,” she chided, “You don't understand, do you? You're the only one left.”

Kevin's eyes widened. “No. No, that can't be true. Everyone is fine; you're just trying to trick me!” Kevin yelled, his voice becoming increasingly higher pitched. “Well it's not going to work! I am a reporter, and I'm dedicated to my community! You won't see me leave them behind, not ever! And besides,” he added, slightly more surely, “A few months ago, I talked to another radio host from a town in the future, and he told me that everything was going to be fine, so—”

Lauren cut him off with a full-bodied laugh, as if he'd told her a really, _really_ , good joke. Then, all of a sudden, as if a switch was flipped in her brain, she stopped laughing and glared, straight into Kevin's eyes as if she could bore a hole straight into his brain. Then she twitched, and the sickening smile was back on her face. “He lied, to you Kev. It's over,” she said, before pulling a syringe from her pocket with inhuman speed and plunging it straight into Kevin's neck.

Kevin crumpled to the floor. He tried to sit up, but he couldn't seem to get his limbs to obey him. They felt too heavy, and his head felt too light. He blinked his eyes and looked around in an attempt to stay conscious, but his field of vision was quickly corroding away into darkness. The last thing that Kevin saw before he passed out completely was Lauren leaning over him, pulling his cheeks into an expression to match her own, and saying “Don't forget to _smile_ , Kevin!”

 

₪₪₪

 

When Kevin woke up, he found himself sitting in a pitch-black room. He felt something pinching his forearms but couldn't exactly place what it felt like. He tried to move in order to see, but he couldn't; there were restraints of some sort tied tightly around his arms, legs, torso, and neck, holding him firmly in place. After a minute or so of struggling against the bonds, Kevin resigned himself to sitting still and saving his strength and focusing his energy on trying to map out his surroundings. He figured that eventually, his eyes would adjust to the blackness of the room and he's be able to see at least what size or shape it was. Kevin waited, and waited, and _waited_ for the empty void around him to morph into something tangible, something that he could comprehend, but it never did, and Kevin was stuck in the same state of disorientation that he was when he first woke up. After what seemed like days but could have been mere hours of staring into the incomprehensible void around him, his morale draining and his body becoming weaker, he felt himself drifting away into a dreamlike state.

Then, suddenly, as if a switch was flipped both in the room and inside his very own body, everything was perfect. The room shone brighter than Kevin thought could ever be possible, and he felt so unbelievably, indescribably, deliriously _happy_. Kevin smiled. Kevin laughed. Kevin laughed harder than he'd ever laughed before. All of the thoughts and worries from before were pushed forcefully to the back of his mind. He wanted to feel this way forever. He never wanted it to end.

Of course, however, it had to end sometime. Kevin wasn't sure how long it'd been, but it was probably a while. Time was relative anyways, so it probably didn't even matter When the light finally went away, and Kevin was left alone in the dark again, this time with large purple spots in his useless vision, and the sinking depressed feeling was returning, he realized that maybe, just maybe, that horrible Lauren woman was right. Maybe, just maybe, Cecil had been lying. Maybe things won't be fine. Maybe nothing will go right.

 

₪₪₪

 

Analytical data for patient.

Name: Kevin

Age: 32

Occupation: Radio Host

Reason for treatment: will not cooperate

Treatment: Codename_Smiling_God

Treatment description: positive association and drug addiction forced by drugs injected intramuscularly to trigger extreme depression in the darkness and mania in the light

Treatment time frame: indefinite as of now, more data needed to make better judgment

 

₪₪₪

 

Kevin was losing. He could feel himself losing. He tried to resist whatever these people were doing to him, but he wasn't sure what it was, so he didn't know what to resist. All he knew is that he's been in this chamber for too long, and that everything was desolate except for the light. He craved the light. He hated himself for it, because he figured that it meant that whatever they were doing to him was working, but he couldn't help it. He needed the light.

Kevin couldn't remember the last time he slept, but he must have been out at some point, because he'd shat himself at one point, and then a little bit later, he was clean again. Whatever these people wanted from him, it wasn't for him to wallow in his own feces. Kevin was beyond being confused at this point though. He had two emotions, extremely depressed and hopeless, and elated beyond what he could've previously imagined.

 

₪₪₪

 

Lauren watched through the infrared cameras set up all around Kevin. She listened to his brain activity on the monitors on the desks in the lab. She carefully read and re-read the lists of drugs they'd been pumping into his body. She turned to her lab assistant. “It’s time to start phase two,” she said.

“Are you sure, ma'am?” the assistant asked, hesitantly.

“Yes, I'm sure. You do your own goddamn job and I'll do mine,” Lauren said, her voice angry but her mouth smiling. “You questioning our every move does not make us very productive, now does it?”

“No ma'am, sorry ma'am,” the assistant hurriedly replied, before getting to work on the computer, setting up the next part of the procedure.

“And honey,” Lauren said, leaning forward to touch the assistant's face, “Don't forget to smile.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and have a better day.


End file.
